


Discovery

by merlin07



Category: David Tennant - Fandom
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-07-10 13:25:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 20,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6986890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merlin07/pseuds/merlin07
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Crosswise</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Maybe I fell asleep in the shower?" he thought as more water came streaming down onto his body, soaking him to the bone.

"But why would I be fully clothed?" he wondered as his jeans stuck to him when he moved his legs.

Opening one eye he looked up at the weeping sky and realised that it was raining, not a soft gentle spring rain but rather a torrential down pour. The air was warm enough that he didn't get chilled but the mud around him threatened to engulf him entirely so he sat up.

"Where the hell am I?" he took in his surroundings with a frown. The ground was an almost metallic green and the sky was silver with rain clouds.

He didn't want to risk standing just yet, as he was pretty sure his legs wouldn't hold him, they felt boneless and shaky. 

He closed his eyes trying to remember how he came to be here, but he drew a complete blank. The blank extended, he soon discovered to his great dismay, to his name. 

He looked down at himself trying to trigger his memory. His long fingers were not adorned by a ring, so he didn't think he was married. The necklace he wore seemed to twinkle in the half light as he continued his examination, the pendant had some odd characters surrounding it, but he couldn't make out what they said. 

Pulling up his sleeves he saw a broken wrist watch on his right arm its face melted as if it had been in a fierce fire and a still sore burn mark just above it that looked red and raw. He touched it lightly and it throbbed in time with his heart beat so he chose to leave it alone and see what else he could find. 

Both wrists had impressive circular bruises and the back of his head felt a bit tender, but aside from general whole body soreness he felt all right.

He fished in his pockets, pulled out a fob watch that when opened also looked half melted, then a pack of mints, some dried fruit packets, what appeared to be a set of pliers and a few sticks of gum, but no identification. His mouth felt dry and he had a taste like he had eaten something burned and rancid. He unwrapped one of the sticks of gum and popped it into his mouth.

"At least I'll have minty fresh breath," he laughed, his voice sounding strange to himself.

He sat still trying to concentrate, he flashed on an image of a blue box and the name of it balanced on the tip of his tongue but the more he tried to remember the harder his head pounded. Giving up he rose to his feet, stumbling briefly before he set out to seek shelter and get out of the soaking rain.

\-------

The Master sat on the jump seat with a cat-who-ate-the-canary grin on his face watching The Doctor's frantic movements as he adjusted settings and set coordinates on the TARDIS' console.

"You don't have the first idea where to look!" The Master chortled, "so all your efforts are for nought."

"Just watch me," The Doctor hissed not looking up from his ministrations.

So The Master did. 

He had to admit that he had never met any pilot so in-tune with his ship as The Doctor was with the TARDIS. But unless it had a Magic 8 Ball or an Ouija Board built into the console, there was no way anything he was doing would bring them closer to finding David.

This was beyond delicious, he laughed inwardly, The Doctor was in distress, wounded to the quick at losing his misbegotten mixed breed clone. Plus the mongrel himself was banished to somewhere he hoped was massively unpleasant. 

Now if they could just offload the snivelling cow of a human female with her voice that would shatter glass at ten paces, his world would be almost perfect.

The Master stole a glance at The Doctor, wondering if he could also sense that David was still alive. He briefly thought of asking his fellow Time Lord just that but didn't want to do anything that could possibly ease The Doctor's anguish.

He closed his eyes and reached out telepathically to David. He got only confusion and the tinge of fear from him before he pulled back and concentrated on the present. He knew the device was untested, but he had no idea that one of the side effects would be to wipe the person's mind clean of all identity.

That, The Master smiled, was just a delightful bonus.


	2. Chapter 2

As much as The Doctor hated to even consider it, on some levels The Master was right. In all of known and unknown space finding one man was going to be darn near impossible. But he was not willing to concede this, even to himself. 

The moment he gave up, he chided himself, was the moment he should just lay down and die. Because then his life would have no purpose. The Master's smug, satisfied expression only served to spur him on, there was no way he would let his fellow Time Lord win.

He stilled for a moment, standing behind the rotor and out of The Master's line of sight. He kept picking up flashes of images, pouring rain, mud, pain, confusion and knew who he was getting them from. 

"Hold on!" he thought loudly, "I'm coming to find you!" 

Just as he sent that reassurance out through the cosmos he seemed to lose his footing, briefly stumbled back but quickly righted himself. 

"He's hurt," The Doctor gasped softly, and redoubled his efforts to find David.

\-------

David, not able to see clearly in the pouring rain, tripped over a half exposed root and fell forward, face down into the mud. As he lay there he was hit with a wave of hopelessness, he half considered just staying there and let the torrential flood wash him away.

The thought was soon chased away as he clearly heard a voice urging him to get up, he rose to his feet and looked around himself, aside from bare trees and piles of rotten vegetation he was alone. 

He shook his head, "hearing voices now..." he mumbled before setting back off in search of shelter.

After walking for what seemed like an eternity David saw a lean-to off in the distance. It had the appearance of being abandoned ages ago, its walls sagging to one side but the metal roof seemed to be holding. He reached it and ducking through the low doorway stepped gratefully inside and out of the rain.

The place smelt musty and it would appear many small animals had made nests in the various crannies but at least it was dry. He looked around and under a bale of moulding straw he found a well chewed but mostly intact length of some rough fabric. Wrapping it around his shoulders he sat down on the straw and leaning back against the wall of the shed closed his eyes as he was suddenly overcome with fatigue.

Sometime after night fell the sensation of small feet running over his legs woke him, "mice" he thought aloud. It struck him that it was odd that he knew the names of the animals around him but still couldn't recall his own. He concentrated hard, trying to remember but all he got was the start of a massive headache for his efforts.

He wished he had some matches or a torch, or a warm set of dry clothes but having none of those things he pulled the make shift blanket tighter around himself and stretched out on the bale of straw and went back to sleep.

\-------

She had better things to do, she groused, than going chasing after the puppy her husband just had to have and yet forgot to shut the gate, again, before letting it out. It was barely sunrise and the fields were still soaked from the previous day's rain. 

She shivered in the cold morning air, her wellies sinking in the mud with each step as she reached the back half of the property. This was a part of the estate they kept talking of converting to stables or a summer house or something, but for now it was mostly woods, fields and "mud" she grumbled as her boot threatened to come off for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Daisy!" she called out, "Daisy come here girl!" then she listened for the puppy's shrill bark but heard only silence. 

With a sigh she pressed on, "the country is lovely," she assured herself, suddenly nostalgic for the council flat she had grown up in as the forest loomed ahead of her. 

There was always something a bit creepy about these woods. Maybe it was the old growth trees block out almost all light? Or maybe it was the ghostly stumps that from the corner of one's eye looked like decimated corpses or animated skeletons when the wind blew just right. Either way she avoided going into them alone and would be content to live the rest of her life never setting foot in it again.

"Daisy!" she yelled standing just on the edge of the woods, "if I get lost in there I am going to beat him to death with that stupid mutt," she threatened idly, knowing full well she wouldn't do it but the anger she felt was better than the fear she was denying.

She laughed at herself before striding into the woods, "what's the worst that can happen? A splinter? Get a grip!" 

\-------

A cold wet nose snuffling his hand, followed by a warm wet tongue licking his face woke David out of his uneasy sleep. He opened his eyes to see a small jet black dog regarding him with soulful brown eyes with her head cocked.

"Hello," he smiled at the puppy, "where did you come from?" It was nice to see a friendly face, he thought as he reached out to scratch its silky head. The collar that jingled around her neck had yellow flowers embroidered on it.

The puppy's tail thumped on the ground as she leaned into his hand, her tongue lolling out of her mouth in a comical way. Then puppy suddenly straightened, her ears pricking up and half trotted to the door of the lean-to.

David strained to hear whatever it was that caught her attention but she seemed to lose interest in it and instead sniffed around the edges of the shack. She stopped and dug at a spot in one corner flushing out a small chipmunk and chased it around the small confines until it ducked out of sight again.

"Some hunter you are," David laughed as the puppy tried to figure out where her new toy had gone. With that thought came the realisation that he was hungry, and remembering the fruit packets in his pockets he pulled one out and after a bit got it open.

He shook some of the dried fruit into his palm and popped them in his mouth, before offering one to the dog. She sniffed it but declined, instead choosing to mouth a stick she had scooped up from the dirt floor. After chewing the hard nuggets for a bit David thought that the stick probably had better flavour and she had made the right decision.

After he had finished half the fruits and his jaw ached from the effort he carefully folded the packet and put it into his pocket. 

"Come on girl," he called to the puppy, "time to figure out where we are," and with that he left the lean-to.


	3. Chapter 3

She had gotten about halfway into the dense tree cover when she heard a twig snap off in the distance, she strained her eyes to see what the source of that noise was but couldn’t see much more than one metre in front of her.

“There are no monsters here!” she assured herself, only half believing it. Her heart quickened as a blurred shape came loping towards her at high speed. Her fright turned to amusement as Daisy came running out of the gloom with a stick almost as long as she was clutched in her mouth.

“Daisy! Come here,” she called. And the puppy ran up to her, almost whacking her in the side with the stick as she jumped up to greet her mistress. A lead was snapped onto the flowered collar and they started to leave the woods.

She had almost calmed down enough to laugh at the puppy’s antics when she looked down and saw fresh footprints in the muddy floor of the woods. They were too big to be her own and since it had rained so hard the day before, these had to be fresh. 

She picked up the puppy and ran to back to the house, losing all pretence at self control. They had an intruder! was all that filled her panicked mind, an intruder!

\-----------

“You have to tell me what you did to him,” The Doctor implored of his fellow Time Lord.

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” The Master shot back, “but I’ll give you a hint.”

The Doctor leaned towards him slightly, anticipating getting something, anything to help him find David.

The Master grinned, “he isn’t on Gallifrey.”

The Doctor straightened up, “that’s no help,” then he paced the console room, “when you transported him out of the lab, what did you use to do so?”

“My boffins were working on a prototype of a personal transporter device,” The Master shrugged, figuring he was giving nothing important away and could get a bit of bragging in as well, “something based on a design idea I’ve had for a while. To be honest, it was not even tested when I used it. So it’s really hard to guarantee it didn’t blast him into small pieces to be scattered all over the cosmos.”

The Master paused for a moment drinking in the distressed look on The Doctor’s face, before continuing, “like little bits of mongrel confetti. Isn’t that a poetic image?” he mimed falling confetti with his hands, wiggling his fingers as he did so.

“How does this device work?” The Doctor pressed on, trying to ignore the vision The Master had implanted in his head.

“It’s a basic transporter device, the idea is that the person thinks of where they want to go, presses the on switch and there they are,” The Master replied, “but since he was unconscious, the possibilities are endless. Could be ancient Rome, or Oskerion or the human concept of Hell, or even if he had nothing on his mind at all, the void?”

The Doctor suppressed a shudder at that last option; if David was trapped in the void finding him would be impossible. He reached out again and picked up an image of a tall moss covered tree, hopefully he was in a forest and not in the void dreaming of his home planet.

\--------

She had just reached the edges of the main house’s yard setting the puppy down with a gasp as she tried to catch her breath.

Her husband was standing on the back porch watching her approach, one look at her pale white face made him set his tea cup down with a thump on the railing and run over to her, “what’s wrong?” he asked taking in her wide frightened eyes.

“There…is…someone…in...the…woods...” she panted, trying to catch her breath.

“I know that place scares you, I’m sorry you had to go into the forest!” he hugged her to him, “I said I would go fetch Daisy but by the time I got my coat on you were gone!” 

She didn’t answer him so he continued, “are you sure you saw anybody? Your mind wasn’t playing tricks?”

She shook her head, “I am not imagining it, there were footprints!” she pushed him away, “not mine, fresh ones and they were around that old shack!”

“Maybe a vagrant stayed there for the night,” he assured her soothingly, “it was pretty horrid out yesterday; you can’t blame someone for seeking shelter.”

He leaned back and searched her eyes with his and saw his words were not having the calming effect he had been hoping for. He slipped his arm around her shoulder, “I’ll get the caretaker and the gardener to go with me and we’ll search the woods. If your intruder is still there we’ll find him…or her. OK?”

She nodded, letting herself relax in his warm embrace, “thank you,” she sighed.


	4. Chapter 4

David wished he had a coat or something other than a still damp tshirt, jeans and increasingly sopping trainers. But mostly he wished he could find his way out of the woods. He just cleared one copse of trees with a tantalising clearing, promising an end to the forest, when its look alike waited on the other side.

He began to wonder if he was somehow walking in circles, with no sun to guide him and no visual reference point beyond still more trees it was impossible to tell.

Just when the idea of sitting down on one of the fallen trees and just giving up hit him, he heard voices mixed with sound of dogs barking. At first he was excited to see another living creature, until they got into visual range and he saw they had guns.

He ducked down behind the log, and watched the approaching men from the cover of the tangle of branches.

"The dogs picked up a scent here," said a man with a tweed cap on his head. He scanned the horizon and seeing nothing he yanked the dog back who was straining at its leash trying to pull him towards David, "whatever they are smelling is long gone."

He turned back to a tall thin man that David thought looked awfully familiar, but he couldn't quite figure out why, "I think you're right, sir, it was most likely a vagrant, must have cleared out when m'lady sussed him."

The tall man didn't look convinced, and he seemed to look straight at David for a moment, then he shrugged, "let's head back" he finally replied, gesturing with a sweeping motion to the general area behind them.

David waited until they were out of sight before coming out of his hiding place and trailing them at a safe distance, hoping they knew the way out.  
\-----

As he walked with the others, the dogs sniffing every available tree along the way, he picked up the presence of someone else in the back of his mind. He felt it most strongly back in the thick of the forest but wasn't sure if he was picking up on the men around him or someone else. He kept looking over his shoulder, sure they were being followed but each time he turned around there was no one back there.

Maybe his wife's paranoia about the forest was effecting him, he laughed to himself. Trying hard to shake off the tickle in his brain that made him sure he was connected to someone else on the most basic of psychic levels. The only other times he had experienced that level of connection was in the presence of...

He heard a rustle of dead leaves being trod upon and stopped dead in his tracks, whipping around so fast the caretaker nearly ran him over, "did you hear that?" he asked his voice barely above a whisper. The caretaker stepped back to avoid a collision as the urge to run back into the thicket made him jump forward before halting himself.

The caretaker regarded him cautiously, "I heard nothing...." he replied, wondering if this strange man unreadable man had finally gone around the bend.

He stood perfectly still, just the snuffling of the dogs and his own heart beat for sound. Then he straightened up, regaining some composure, "go on ahead, tell my wife I'll be home in a bit, there's something I need to do first," he waved them off and waited until they were mere specks in the distance before ducking back into the woods.

There was that sound again, he thought holding himself very still, there was definitely someone else in the woods, "you can come out," he called, "I'm unarmed and promise I won't harm you!"

The woods were silent again.

"It's OK, if you need food or shelter or anything, I can help," he continued, straining to hear something, anything, but was greeted only by the odd chirp of a bird and that was it.

He closed his eyes and reached out to the presence, he almost had it pinpointed when the gardener tapped him on the shoulder, interrupting his efforts and making him almost jump out of his skin, "the lady says and I quote, 'if he doesn't get his sorry ass in here right now I'm feeding his breakfast to the birds'."

He turned away from the forest and nodded at the messenger, "tell her the birds don't like scones and I'll be there presently."

Due to the chill that now engulfed him he knew that the other in the woods was suffering from the cold morning air, he shrugged out of the warm coat he had on and laid it on a dry fallen tree, "you can return this to me later," he spoke to the forest, "you know where to find me." 

Then he walked towards the house leaving the damp woods behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

Deidre had gotten herself together enough to rejoin the two Time Lords in the console room. Her eyes were dry, for now, but were bright red. She didn't quite understand why David was so important to The Doctor, or why The Master seemed to hold him in such contempt but in the short time she had spent with David she had grown quite fond of him.

The Master was leaning against one of the support pillars with a very satisfied air about him, while The Doctor ran around the console muttering to himself and occasionally pulling at his hair in frustration.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she ventured.

The Master laughed, "unless you got the mongrel chipped at the pound, I doubt it."

Deidre's eyes flashed, "why do you keep calling him that?"

"It's a long and complicated story," The Doctor stopped his rushing about and walked over to her seeming to notice her distress for the first time. 

"We have the time," The Master smirked, "unless you've managed to do the impossible..."

The Doctor glared at him then turned his attention back to Deidre, "the sum up is that he is very special and important, not just to me but to a lot of others..."

The Master snorted, "why don't you just tell her? You yap all the time about nothing but when it comes to the crucial information you're about as transparent as a brick wall."

Deidre reached the end of her patience, and stomped over to The Master, her heavy footfall making the grating ring, "listen mate!" she growled, "I have had bloody enough of you! Shut it before I shut it for you!"

The Doctor bit back a grin at the effect her words seemed to have on The Master. The other Time Lord looked shocked at her tone and seemed to involuntarily flinch as she yelled at him. It was pretty obvious no one had taken him to task like that in years.

The Master recovered quickly, his face set in a sneer, "as if a mere human female..." he started.

"That's enough!" The Doctor commanded, "this is not going to get us anywhere."

Deidre wasn't quite finished, "if he wasn't here," she gestured at The Doctor, "I'd show you what this 'mere human female' could do."

\-------

His wife was anxiously waiting for him and almost pounced on him the moment he got into the house.

"Did you see anyone?" she asked grabbing his arm tightly in her hands.

"I saw no one," he replied, choosing not to mention that he had heard and felt another's presence, not wanting to worry her further.

She relaxed her grip with a sigh, "it was all in my imagination?"

He shrugged non-committally not wanting to lie, but until he was sure of what he had discovered he wanted to withhold comment.

She mustered a smile and gestured towards the kitchen, "come on breakfast is waiting and I am so hungry I could eat a horse."

He stole a glance out the window, momentarily distracted by the tickle in his mind growing stronger. By squinting off in the distance he could just see the forest and thought he saw movement on the edge of the woods. 

He felt the cold he had been consumed with lessen, and smiled, hoping the coat was being put to good use. He mentally made plans to go out in the woods again after his wife left for her shopping trip and see if he could track down this presence.

He turned his attentions back to his wife a cheeky grin on his face, "that is a massively disgusting saying. Besides how big of a pan would you need to cook one? and would you remove the tail first?"

She laughed at her husband's ramblings, "come on, let's eat. I think low blood sugar is effecting your brain!"


	6. Chapter 6

The Doctor waited until he was alone with The Master, Deidre having just stomped off declaring she needed tea and "something stronger".

"This device of yours," he started with no preliminaries, "explain to me how it works."

The Master shrugged, "I already told you."

"Yeah, you did but you left some key things out," The Doctor got in very close to his fellow Time Lord, "I can't imagine you inventing a leisure time travelling device without some ulterior motive or something sneaky built into it. Let's face it, you're not known for your benevolence." 

"I don't know whatever you mean," The Master feigned being hurt at the very suggestion.

"You know what I mean," The Doctor's eyes grew cold, "now you're going to tell me what little extra features you have built into it..."

"Or?" The Master challenged, straightening himself up to his full height. He secretly wished he could tower over The Doctor, but this current regeneration had a good ten centimetres on him.

The Doctor smiled, but the mirth did nothing to touch the anger in his eyes, "I know for a fact that there is still a bounty on Dhakan for your past crimes, the reward would be a great boon to the orphanages on Trion."

The Master snorted, "I'm the only other Time Lord in existence and you would turn me in for a bounty? Whatever happened to your grand plan to save me from my evil ways?"

The Doctor got within a breath's distance, "Oh....I wouldn't leave you there permanently, maybe just a hundred years or so...give or take a decade. I'm pretty sure they figure out lots of ways to keep you 'entertained'," he fashioned his fingers into quotes mere millimetres from The Master's face. 

Holding his gaze steady The Master sneered, "you wouldn't."

"Try me," The Doctor growled.

The Master swallowed hard, then affecting an air of casualness took a few steps back, "as much as I hate to give away patented secrets," he twirled in place in a sort of odd dance, a grin on his face, "you got me. The instrument is not only a leisure time travel apparatus, as you surmised. It is also a mind control device. How it works is that once it's switched on it taps into the wearer's inner most thoughts, desires and wishes."

The Doctor nodded silently and waved his fingers to encourage The Master to continue.

"It also implants a suggestion and a feedback loop to a small hand held device, that I control, and if I so desire it, the chip inside it will allow me to use a low level form of hypnosis," The Master explained with a look of glee on his face.

"So it's also for brain washing," The Doctor summed up.

"If you want to use such a crude term," The Master looked offended.

"But in this case it washed too much," The Doctor mused aloud.

"Well to be fair," The Master offered, "it was set to human biology strictly. And we hadn't really tested it on any living being, not even a mouse. So it probably needs a bit of tweaking before it's ready to hit the market."

"Fat chance on me letting you do that," The Doctor sniffed, "this little experiment of yours is concluded. Look what damage you've done!"

"What good is being an evil genius if I can't be just a little naughty once in a while?" The Master laughed.

The Doctor ignored that last comment, deep in thought, "if it's controlled by a central device, does it have a way of saving the user's last destination?"

The Master looked puzzled, "I honestly don't know. I hadn't really considered that."

"Do you have it on you?" 

"Never leave home without it," The Master fished in his breast pocket, and held up a slim silver object that looked more like an old fashioned cigarette case than a computer.

"Give it to me," The Doctor snapped his fingers impatiently.

"What's the magic word?" The Master teased.

"Dhakan."

The Master sighed dramatically and handed over the device, "you are no fun anymore," he pouted.

His drama was lost on The Doctor as he had already pulling the cover off of the device. Perching his glasses on the edge of his nose he aimed his sonic screwdriver at it. The tip of his tongue just peeking out his slightly parted lips as he concentrated. 

\------

He waited until his in-laws left for town with his wife in tow, before venturing out into the woods again. He made sure no one followed him by at first pretending to be wander aimlessly around the property. He made sure to bring along a pair of his father-in-law's favourite bird watching binoculars to cover his actions if anyone took notice. 

It wasn't that he didn't trust his wife's step-father and mother; it's just that they seemed to watch him very closely, almost warily. And most times it didn't bother him over much, but sometimes...it was best to venture out on his own.

As he reached the woods the presence in the back of his mind, the other he had sensed before, was far away. He decided to check the lean-to first that was the general area his wife had seen the fresh tracks. 

Humming to himself, he stepped into the thick forest, hoping whatever was there was benign.


	7. Chapter 7

The warm coat had eased the chills a bit, but David was still feeling out of it as he sat in the warm sun on an old stone wall. His head throbbed and the more he tried to concentrate the worse it got. 

He had watched the men and dogs retreat. Then much later saw one of them returning to the woods from his perch but didn't want to draw attention to himself just yet. That and the effort of moving seemed too much to bear.

He pulled out the contents of his pockets once again, hoping that those objects would give him a clue as to who he was. The fob watch looked scorched around the edges, but wouldn't open when he tried the latch. Maybe the hinge melted, he thought.

As he held the watch in his hand it seemed to grow warm and if he listened really closely he could almost hear whispers coming from inside it. He looked around nervously, hearing voices in the woods, and now voices coming from inanimate objects! Not good, not good at all!

David felt hungry again but the even the thought of trying to chew through any more of the dried, hard fruits made his jaw ache. So he put everything back in his pockets and stretched out in the sun, hoping the rays would dry his clothes and maybe then he would explore his surroundings and maybe find a way out of there.

\-----

The lean-to was empty; the only signs that anyone had been there was some tracks in the dust on the floor and a makeshift bed made on a few bales of mouldering straw. He leaned in and touched the bit of burlap sacking that had clearly been used as a blanket. 

As he made contact he got a fleeting impression of the identity of the presence he had been feeling. He straightened up with a gasp. "No, can't be," he shook his head, trying to clear out the images in his mind. As the emotions of the last person to touch the rough material hit him hard, he sat down on one of the bales with a thump. 

He picked up the sacking, holding it like a child would clutch a beloved blanket, and let the feelings wash over him; confusion and fear were gnawing at him like a sharp tooth beast biting at the edges of his mind. 

After sitting rock still with the sacking clutched tightly for a few moments, he abruptly stood up and ran out of the lean-to. He didn't stop until he reached the house, the remnants of the shared emotions spurring him on.

He rifled through the kitchen cabinets gathering a few choice items, before ducking into his mother-in-law's room to grab one more thing. Once he had all he needed he sat down at the dining room table and began to assemble his finds.

Then he gathered up everything and he filled two flasks with hot tea. Into the red flask he shook a white powdery substance that he had carefully measured out on a small square of paper and gave the flask a couple of twists mixing the contents inside together. Throwing everything into a satchel he took a deep breath, silently praying this would work.

Then he headed out again.

He was almost to the sprawled figure on the wall before he was heard. David sat up, coming awake with a start. 

“It’s OK,” the man assured him, “I am not going to hurt you.”

There was something very familiar about this tall thin man, David wasn’t sure why, but he felt instantly at ease, once his heart beat recovered from the shock.

“Thanks for the coat,” he gestured at his chest, “I was going to return it once I warmed up a bit.”

The man smiled, “no hurry,” then as if suddenly reminded he reached down and swung the satchel he was wearing off of his shoulder. “I brought you some breakfast and some hot tea,” then he held the bag out to David.

He could see that David didn’t recognise him, which was worrying, but he kept a friendly smile on his face. David made no to move to accept the satchel from him, instead regarded him with slightly narrowed eyes. The other nodded slightly, “I understand, it’s the training from childhood, never accept sweets from strangers, but there’s no candy in there I assure you.”

Still David kept his hands folded in his lap.

The man set the satchel down next to him, opened it up and pulled out a blueberry scone, breaking off a piece he popped it into his mouth, “see?” he spoke around the mouthful, “it’s not poisoned,” then he held the remaining scone out and was relieved to have David take it from him.

“Thank you,” David nodded as he took a tentative bite of the scone. Then he took a larger mouthful, “why are you being so kind?”

The other man shrugged, “I’ve been hungry myself, I know how that can be.”

Then he reached into the bag and first picking up the green flask, but not quite pulling it out. He reached out telepathically to David, picking up on the other’s distrust and the strong urge to bolt. With a barely audible sigh he discarded the green flask and instead started to pull out the red one. He hoped the white powder had dissolved completely by now and the taste would be masked by the sugar and milk he added.


	8. Chapter 8

The flask seemed to stick in his hand, he really didn't want to use the contents unless he absolutely had to. Without taking it all of the way out of the satchel he turned back to David, "what brings you here?" he asked keeping his tone conversational.

David took another bite of the scone, chewing it and swallowing before answering, "I honestly don't know. I woke up covered in mud...." he stopped trying to concentrate, "I keep thinking that I'm supposed to be somewhere else..." then he shrugged.

The other man, still holding the flask in an almost death grip nodded sympathetically, "sounds unpleasant," then he decided to stop beating around the bush, "do you know who I am?"

"Should I?" David frowned.

"We've met before," the man tried for a friendly grin as his heart sank at the confirmation of what he had suspected all along.

"Well, don't be offended, because I can't even remember my own name," David laughed humourlessly.

The man leaned in, "do I look familiar to you at all?"

David looked him up and down, "you do...why is that?"

"At least that's something," the man replied, "I'm not sure what happened to you, but it appears that someone has been messing with your mind, some of your memory has been erased."

He set the flask back in the bag and reached for the un-tampered green flask, "would you like some tea?"

"No thanks. You've been very kind, and I appreciate that, but I'm sure you have something else you need to be doing," David replied getting up from the wall.

"Wait!" the man jumped to his feet, "why don't you come with me? I'm sure my wife would love to see you, and well, umm, you could get some dry clothes and warm up a bit?" he stammered out stepping in front of David.

"Why should I trust you?" David's eyes narrowed as he regarded him suspiciously.

"I know you have no reason to believe me, but I am someone you know and I believe you have trusted. Some thing's been done to you. Something bad. And yes you're right, you are supposed to be somewhere else, but since you're here, now, please let me help you."

\--------

Deidre heard the two Time Lords arguing, and stopped on her way back from the kitchen with the mug of tea in her hand. She resisted the urge to smack the living hell out of The Master only because she knew how The Doctor felt about violence. 

She announced her presence by stomping into the console room, "it's good to know some thing's never change!" she announced with a grumble, "when's the last time you made a grocery run? The only milk in the place is an expired tin of the condensed stuff."

The Doctor looked surprised, then thinking for a bit, "I think it was last...no...wait...I got it now! Two, no three...errrm..."

"Oh never mind!" Deidre interrupted, "I've made a shopping list," she thrust a long sheet of paper into his hands.

The Doctor regarded it, "what do you need Royal Jelly for?"

Deidre patted her face, "it's good for the skin, it's a beauty aid."

"Do you buy it by the barrel full?" The Master snorted, "because you sure could use all the help you can get."

Forgetting the promise she had made to herself Deidre walked over to the Time Lord, and slapped him hard enough to twirl him around, "didn't your mother ever tell you if you couldn't say anything nice, don't say nothin' at all?"

The Master regarded her with a mixture of shock and disbelief, then his face darkened and he lunged at her. This was a mistake on his part, Deidre deftly flipped him over with a Karate move she had learned at the Women's Centre and with a resounding thump he hit the floor.

As soon as he recovered from the wind being knocked out of him, The Master leapt to his feet and went after her again, this time he almost ran into The Doctor who had stepped between them.

"Enough!" he shouted bringing both of them to their senses, "this isn't going to solve anything!"

Then gesturing at The Master, "you go sit down over there" he pointed at the row of seats at the back of the console room, "and you," he looked at Deidre, "go there," he waved in the general direction of the jump seat.

"Oi!" Deidre protested, "you putting us in time out?"

"If you're going to act like children, then you'll be treated like children," The Doctor looked over the rim of his glasses at her.

Despite herself Deidre took a seat, "great, I'm travelling in space and time with the universe's self appointed nanny," she mumbled.

The Doctor countered, "I have more important things to do than mind you two, but if you can't control yourselves, someone has to."

Deidre waited until the Time Lord turned back to the console before making a rude gesture at his back.

"I saw that!" he exclaimed without turning around.

She quickly folded her hands in her lap and putting on her most innocent face waited for The Doctor to tell her she could get off the naughty chair.


	9. Chapter 9

Once The Doctor was sure his two charges were staying put he turned his attention back to the small hand-held computer that The Master had given over to him. He got the cover off pretty immediately then bending over it touched the wiring and circuits lightly with his fingers, talking softly to himself as he traced the schematics. 

“This is genius!” he called out to The Master, without looking up from the device, “but since I know for a fact that you failed every design class at the Academy I can't believe you came up with this all by yourself!”

The Master snorted but said nothing, he took on an offended look but since his fellow Time Lord only seemed to have eyes for the machine it was a wasted effort.

“Ohhh…” The Doctor breathed, examining a cluster of diodes closely, “now, this is interesting…”

He reached into his pocket and fished out the sonic screwdriver and a pair of long, thin pliers. He pulsed it a few times, and then gently extracted a small gold square from the body of the machine. He held the chip up, one hand cupping the other, careful not to drop it and walked over to Deidre.

Deidre stared at the gold square intently, her eyes almost crossed, “yeah, it’s shiny and all...but what am I supposed to be looking at?”

The Doctor made a clicking sound with his tongue, then putting the chip even closer to her face pointed at a line that criss-crossed the square, “this, this is where it went wrong.”

The Master jumped up from his seat, grabbed The Doctor’s arm and pulled the chip close in, “what do you mean?”

“Your design! Maybe it was all your own handiwork, given this discovery, is flawed. You made a rather sizeable error. This feedback loop you have in the pendant that David was wearing and the one you have here would wipe out the person’s basic identity. Instead of transmitting their personal information to you, it removes it!" The Doctor smiled at him, “it's a simple mathematical miscalculation. If you had this switched on when you activated the pendant it would have had the same effect on you, too.”

The Master straightened up, “it wasn’t tested, of course there will be bugs that need to be worked out,” he sniffed defensively.

Deidre tapped The Doctor on the shoulder, “now that you know what happened, can you reverse it?”

The Doctor took off his glasses and blinked a few times, “I don’t know.”

“You’ll have to find him first,” The Master chortled.

“Oh I will, you just watch me,” The Doctor spoke, his voice deadly quiet.

“How do you know he just didn’t go home?” Deidre piped up.

The Master smiled at the odd look on The Doctor’s face, “tell her,” he prompted.

“Well…” The Doctor started.

“He has observation devices in all his ‘companions’ houses,” The Master laughed.

“You spy on us?!” Deidre shouted.

“No it’s not like that,” The Doctor protested, “it’s just a basic life signs monitor, and I’ve checked. Aside from a couple of house plants that probably could use a good watering, there’s nothing there.”

Deidre mulled that over and decided to not be further offended, “so now what?”

“Everyone has a unique brain wave pattern; maybe I can tap into this thingie here,” The Doctor gestured vaguely at the dissected machine on the console, “and use the TARDIS to locate David that way.”

“And maybe,” The Master offered, “I will grow big fluffy wings and shoot rainbows out of my…”

“Don’t be crude,” The Doctor cut him off, and went back to work picking apart the machine.

\-------

He could tell he was only making things worse, but he wanted to give David a chance to be reasonable and come back with him to the house, "I understand you don't know me from Adam right now and me telling you that you do, isn't helping. But you really have to believe me."

"Right," David countered, "and why do I have to?"

"OK, poor choice of words," the man sighed. He reached into the satchel and pulled out the undrugged flask and slipped it into his coat pocket when David looked away for a moment, "never mind. Look I have to get back, help yourself to the food and the hot tea in here," he held the bag out to David, "when you're finished just put it back on the wall and I'll collect it later."

David hesitated, aware that the other man was truly distressed by his refusal to accept his offer, "why is this so important to you?"

So many answers flitted through the man's mind. How much to tell him? he wondered. 

Finally he leaned in, "I'm a friend," was all he could bring himself to say.

"If that's so," came the reply, "what's my name?"

"Your name is David," the man smiled sadly, "and you're right, you don't belong here. You belong on a different planet, hell a different universe even. And I have no idea how you wound up here. But you're here now. Looking at those clouds I suspect it's going to rain again tonight, and it's going to get cold and that lean-to isn't exactly going to be warm once the wind picks up. Until the Calvary arrives, or until we can figure a way to get you back to your home, I'm your best chance of survival."

That seemed to ring true because David retook his place on the wall next to the stranger, "and what's your name?" he asked attempting a smile.

The other man smiled widely as his shoulders slumped in relief, "my name is John."


	10. Chapter 10

John turned away a moment distracted by the sound of an approaching vehicle, he watched it come into view, “that’s my wife and her family returning,” then turning around he saw David tipping the last of the flask of tea into his mouth, “did you just drink all of that?”

David wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, “sorry, I should have asked you if you wanted some.”

“No, um, that’s fine,” John quickly countered, mentally smacking himself for not switching the flasks back, “I would really like you to come back to the house with me. I think you should probably get a dry set of clothes on.”

And because in a few minutes you’re going to be unconscious, he didn’t say aloud. Given the already exhausted state David was in he knew that the sedatives contained in the tea were going to hit him hard.

David seemed to be a bit reluctant to accept the offer until he heard the part about dry clothes, “are you sure?”

John smiled, “I’m pretty sure I have something that will fit you.”

As they approached the house, David was already starting to yawn, John watched him carefully trying not to be too obvious. Once they got to the back door John said, “wait here a second I need to let my wife know we have a guest.”

But before he could go inside Violet came around the side of the house, saw the two men standing there and shrieked in surprise.

“Cat’s out of the bag,” John winced. 

Just as he said that Violet screamed again, this time pointing behind John. He turned around just in time to catch David as his eyes fluttered closed, his legs gave out and he went down.

Violet recovered from her double shock and rushed over to her husband’s side, “did I do that?”

“No, that was my fault,” John explained lowering David gently to the ground, “I drugged him.”

“You what?” Violet gasped.

“Well, not intentionally, no wait that’s not exactly true. What I mean is that I had two flasks, one was, um, I meant to switch them back, but got distracted,” John stammered out.

Violet shook her head, “how about you explain that later when you’ve calmed down and are able to make sense?” she smiled softly, “for now let’s get him inside, some place more comfortable.”

With that she grabbed the unconscious man’s legs and John looped his arms around his chest and they hauled him into the house.

Once they got David on the sofa Violet sat next to him, brushed a stray lock of hair off his forehead tenderly, “how did he get here?” she asked not looking up.

John perched on the edge of the arm of the sofa, “I honestly don’t know, and he doesn’t either. It appears he has had his memory wiped, he has no idea who he is.” Then rubbing his eyes John continued, “he didn’t recognise me.”

Violet’s fists clenched, “who would do something like that?” but before John could reply her eyes narrowed, “that bastard!” she hissed.

John knew who she referring to, “most likely,” he nodded, picturing a smirk on The Master’s face.

“He’s the ‘intruder’ from the forest by the way,” getting to his feet John sighed, “that’s why I’ve been so unsettled since yesterday, I’ve been picking up on David. I’ll bet The Doctor is worried sick.”

She was very quiet, “we don’t have to tell The Doctor straight away that we have him do we?” she whispered.

John took a sharp breath, “you can’t keep him, Violet. He has his own life; you can’t do that to him.”

Her eyes filled with tears, “I know that! But we don’t have to call The Doctor right now! Can’t we wait a few days? Please? Just until he’s rested up?”

John looked at his wife and at David, his heart torn. He knew what was right, he knew what he should do, but the look on Violet’s face, the pleading in her eyes froze him to the spot. He was completely overwhelmed by indecision. Afraid of making a snap judgement call, even if it was the right one. The one that would break Violet’s heart, so he stood mute.


	11. Chapter 11

John was saved from having to decide by the unmistakable sound of his mother-in-law approaching. Her omnipresent high heels clacking on the lino and her whining filled the room before she was within visual range.

"We have to get him out of here before he's seen!" John whispered, "you distract her, while I get him into the car, tell her you have to go back to work suddenly or something."

Violet nodded, and rose from her seat. Getting on her tip-toes she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Then steeling herself, she went off to confront her mother.

Taking the throw from the back of the sofa, John wrapped David in it and hoisted him up. Then holding him like a babe in arms he sneaked out the back door silently.

\-------

"How's your tinkering coming?" The Master finally asked, after hours of feigning indifference. He looked around the console room to find he was completely alone. Had he dozed off? He wondered.

He stood up and looked around, "hello?" he called out. Still no answer. 

He grinned, left alone in the console room? He laughed, then approaching the controls, he took out his laser screwdriver and fired it once. The next thing he knew he was lying flat on his back with his hands tingling in a very unpleasant way, and The Doctor's face slowing coming into focus.

"You really shouldn't do things like that," The Doctor smiled, "she doesn't like you much to start with."

The Master got to his feet glaring at his fellow Time Lord, "thanks for the warning, after the fact," he grumbled, "where did you get to?"

The Doctor sat on the jump seat, "I was in the lab, I think I'm getting very close to cracking the code on that device of yours, once I do I will be able to reverse engineer it and use it to find David."

"Don't you ever get tired of rescuing humans?" The Master sat next to The Doctor, and smiled silkily, "you and I could do so much, if we weren't fettered by their tiny minds."

The Doctor cocked an eyebrow at him but said nothing.

"Just imagine it!" The Master continued, "any when, any where and any thing!" Then he leaned in a mere breath away, "we could be gods instead of slaves to those inferior beings."

"And how long would it be until one of us pushed the other out into the heart of a black hole?" The Doctor snorted, rising from the seat, "you don't understand me at all do you?"

"You got that right," The Master snapped, "I give up, you're impossible!" with that he walked out of the room and left The Doctor alone.

The Doctor smiled at The Master's retreating form, and pulled out the now completely disassembled device from his various pockets and spread the pieces out on one of the shelves ringing the console room. He slipped his glasses on and began to whistle "My Way" as he delved back into the bits and pieces.

\-------

John had placed David in the back seat of the car before heading back to the house to see how Violet was coming along. He stayed in the shadows, listening to the conversation.

"But you said you were going to stay all week!" Violet's mother whined.

"I know but we have to get back. I got called into work and John's got a sudden craving for BBQ ribs and the only place he likes is the shop down the street from our house," Violet lied.

"Cravings? What is he pregnant or something?" came the petulant reply.

"Now how can 'he' be pregnant?" Violet laughed, "he's male, I assure you."

"Well, how should I know? He's not exactly all human and lord knows you aren't pregnant, and you've been married how long? When do I get some grandchildren from you missy?"

John smiled at that, "if you only knew" he whispered.

Violet sighed, "I'll ring you when we get home. Tell Pete goodbye for us. Love you!" she hugged her mother and quickly exited before another argument could start.

She stalked up to her husband grim faced, "next time you get to reason with her!" she snarled.

John hugged her, "you did great, now let's get going before he wakes up," he gestured towards the waiting car, "I think we're going to have a lot of explaining to do."


	12. Chapter 12

Deidre passed The Master as she headed back to the console room, refusing to acknowledge his presence she almost ran him down when he refused to move out of her way. The Master stepped aside at the last minute and shot her a glare that would have made beings made of weaker constitutions blanch.

She stood behind The Doctor, watching, as his long fingers deftly reassembled the machine. Finally after the fifth round of "My Way" she tapped him on the shoulder, "how's it going?" she asked.

He looked up, startled, he had been so lost in his discoveries he hadn't been aware that she was behind him, "ummm...getting there. I just about have how it works sorted it's not that it's complicated, more like it was programmed by someone with a learning disability....or a mad genius which is kind of the same thing really."

Deidre looked thoughtful, "With David there's more to this than your usual 'save everyone' isn't there?"

The Doctor looked back down at the machine hoping she'd leave that subject alone. He should have known better, of course.

"Doctor!" Deidre shouted making him jump, "I know you have excellent hearing so you ain't deaf! Talk to me!"

He blinked at her, obviously stalling for time, trying to edit and compose what he was going to say. She had seen this enough to know what was going on and sighed heavily.

"Let's start easy," she grimaced, "he looks like you, right? so is he somehow related?"

"After a fashion," The Doctor admitted.

"Thanks for all the info, you're a regular font of knowledge sometimes!" she spat, then taking a deep breath, "brother? cousin? clone? son? A different dimension's version of you?"

"Technically, none of the above," The Doctor turned back to his tinkerings and Deidre knew that signalled the end of his willingness to talk.

"You're not getting off that lightly," she informed his back, "you know how I love to solve puzzles, and I am not going to let this go until you answer me."

The Doctor sighed, "I am resigned to that, but for now I'm busy!"

Deidre sat on the jump seat, "don't think he's a clone, although a race of tall skinny freckled aliens would be a sight! Wouldn't be hard to defeat either, a good stiff wind and they'd all go flying. Imagine the skies littered with whirling, flailing legs and arms. You'd get sliced to bits by those sharp hip bones of yours..."

The Doctor rolled his shoulders trying to force himself to concentrate and not listen to Deidre's rant.

"Be like some nutso kite convention. I saw one of those fancy kite things in Brighton one year, I wonder how long of a tail you'd need to keep you from going all over the flippin' place," Deidre continued.

Closing his eyes The Doctor willed himself to block out Deidre, but all he could think of was counterweights and the mathematical calculations for string based flight on a Time Lord's body, specifically his.

"Makes you wonder why a grown man or woman would spend their time playing with kites," she mused.

The Doctor sighed, gathered up the pieces of the device and left the console room walked up the ramp until he could no longer feel Deidre's voice scratching at this brain.

\-------

David's eyes opened. It registered that he was laying down in the back of a moving vehicle as he could feel the car hit bumps in the road and could almost make out trees going by. He tried to sit up and open the door but a hand restrained his arm. Then a seemingly disembodied male voice warned him that if he fell out of the car he'd be smashed to pieces. 

Laying back down, he felt a bit sick to his stomach, "what's going on?" he managed to slur out.

"You're safe," a woman's voice assured him, “we’re almost home."

He closed his eyes and fell back asleep dreaming of sun drenched fields of purple flowers.


	13. Chapter 13

The Master danced into the room The Doctor had retreated to, swaying to music in his own head.

"Why don't you just tell her?" he sang twirling The Doctor around by the shoulders. He pulled his fellow Time Lord in for a waltz. Then he dipped The Doctor and bending low over him smiled widely, "why do you always do a verbal jig when your pets ask you questions?"

"Pets?" Deidre snarled, having followed The Doctor as well, "is that what you think I am?"

The Master straightened up pulling The Doctor along with him until they were both standing, "well, grandma, in your case..."

"That's enough! Just stop it, please I'm asking you nicely, just stop!" The Doctor shouted sliding out of The Master's grip.

"Grandma? I'll have you know I'm not that old!" Deidre grumbled.

"You don't have to be old to be a grandmother," The Master laughed, totally ignoring the glare coming from the other Time Lord, "isn't that right, Doctor?"

Deidre shook her head in confusion, "Doctor, what does he mean by that?"

"Don't listen to him," The Doctor advised, his voice quiet, "he's just trying to start trouble."

"It's true and you know it," The Master spun in place with a manic grin on his face, "your son had a son!"

"I don't have any children!" Deidre protested.

The Master grabbed Deidre's hands and pulled her to The Doctor, she was so shocked by his behaviour she didn't have the presence of mind to stop him. He took The Doctor's hand and put it on Deidre's holding them together, "in a strange and round about way you do, but he made you forget!"

The Doctor scowled and yanked his hand from The Master's grasp, "I'm warning you, go no further with this."

"Go ahead zap the collar, punish me for telling the truth," The Master remained merry, "but you will need to tell her, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube once it's been squeezed out!"

The Master danced around the room, pirouetting and spinning as he went, making The Doctor's head hurt trying to keep him within eye sight. Deidre gave up watching the show and turned back to The Doctor, "please talk to me," she urged softly.

The Master's footsteps rang out from the back of the room as he did a one person tango step holding his laser screwdriver in his teeth. But before The Doctor could get a word in The Master bounded over to Deidre, "ask him about the meta-crisis..." and quickly moved out of her arm's reach jumping up on one of the chairs.

"What's a meta-crisis?" Deidre asked her brow furrowed, something about that term sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't figure out why.

"Part human, part Time Lord," The Doctor started.

The Master smiled down at them from his perch, "now tell her where the human part came from!" he challenged, jumping off the furniture.

The Doctor glared at The Master, "if you would just shut up, I will!"

The Master feigned hurt at this but the corners his lips twitched upwards at The Doctor's discomfort and anger. They seemed locked in a staring contest, neither Time Lord willing to back down. They were so intent that Deidre was able to come up behind The Master and flip the red switch on the restraining collar, freezing him to the spot. 

The Doctor didn't immediately notice his opponent was out of the game until he realised he hadn't blinked for a few minutes. Shifting his view to the left of The Master he saw Deidre looking very satisfied with herself.

She looked over the railing, "now, let's chat, shall we?"

\-------

They were almost home when John decided to pick up the debate they had started back at Violet's parent's country estate, "we have to let The Doctor know we have David."

Violet sighed, refusing to look at her husband, "eventually yes, but you know how The Doctor is, he's not going to nurse him back to health, he'll do something wonderfully clever to get him back his memory but he won't be gentle about it."

"I'm willing to listen to reason, but the end result is we have to let him know, sooner than later," John glanced over at her, "tell me what you have in mind?"

Violet smiled, "ideally I'd sneak him into Torchwood, hook him up to some of the equipment we have there and see what's been done, once I get that determined I can figure out how to undo it."

John shuddered at the mention of Torchwood. He shared The Doctor's distrust of the place. Coupled with Violet's stories of what went on there at times, made him seriously loathe the idea of David going anywhere near it. His alien DNA making him a bit suspect, it could turn out badly if the test results fell into the wrong hands.

"How is what you want to do any better?" John asked, keeping his voice neutral. 

"I know what I'm doing!" Violet shot back.

"I really don't think this is a good idea..." John protested, "you can't treat him like a lab animal or a specimen."

Violet saw the resolute expression on her husband's face and she knew what that meant. She had seen that same stubborn set to the jaw and the steely reserve of the eyes in The Doctor more than once. She usually found it amusing to see the Time Lord’s quirks copied in the exact with John. But right now she was far from amused, "give me a week, ten days at the outside. If I can't fix him, you can call The Doctor."

John looked in the rear view mirror at David's still form, "you have three days," he sighed, "if you can't 'fix' him by then I'm calling The Doctor."

She half considering pushing for more time but the muscles in John's jaw were twitching like he was grinding his teeth in frustration, and she knew testing her luck would gain nothing, well, nothing positive. 

Violet flashed her most charming smile, "thank you," she leaned over and gave John a quick peck on the cheek, "you won't be sorry."

"I already am," John thought, but kept his eyes on the road and said nothing.


	14. Chapter 14

Deidre, for once in her life, was speechless. She listened to every word The Doctor said without interruption, her eyes growing ever larger. When he went quiet she continued to stare at him in silence.

Just when he wondered if she had gone catatonic on him Deidre cleared her throat, "why don't I remember any of that?" she spoke her voice just above a whisper.

"I wiped it from your memory," The Doctor replied.

"Why did you do that?" Deidre almost shouted.

The Doctor shrugged, "you asked me to."

"I asked you to? Whatever did I do that for?" she moaned, "so essentially you and I had a kid?"

"He was never a child. But in very simplistic terms, if you want to look at it that way, I guess you could say that," The Doctor frowned, "it was more like a genetic accident. But the outcome is that he's part you, part me."

Deidre put her hand to her mouth and chewed on one of her nails absently, "does he look like me at all?"

The Doctor smiled, "he looks almost exactly like me, sorry. My genes overpowered yours."

"So I'm a grandmother, after a fashion, to a man who is only a few years younger than me?" Deidre moved on to another nail, "does he know?"

"He knows about his parentage, on a lot of levels, but hasn't quite yet come to terms or asked any questions. I suspect he will in time, but as for your role, I'm not sure," The Doctor stood up which was his way announcing the end of the intimate chat, "all that is moot if we don't find him soon."

Deidre knew further questioning of The Doctor would gain her nothing, he had reached his limit, so she rose too and looked at the still frozen Master, "should I let him out?" she laughed.

The Doctor grinned at her, "lady's choice!" Then going back to the disassembled computer left her to her own devices.  
\----------

David woke up pretty sure that the last place he had been was not painted institutional white and full of beeping machinery. He sat up and looked around the room. It seemed to be a hospital or laboratory and he was stripped from the waist up, and had various things affixed to his torso and head.

After unwisely yanking a lead off of his chest and quite a few hairs with it, he decided to just unplug them from the machine. The first one didn't seem to do anything but the second set of leads he unplugged set off an alarm. Before he could figure out how to shut it off an orange haired woman come running into the room pushing a cart with more medical looking instruments on it, and held aloft some metal paddles.

She stopped as soon as she realised that he was not in some sort of medical crisis and smiled apologetically, "I thought you were having a heart attack," she explained.

Eyeing the cart suspiciously David replied, "I still may, you scared me!" He sat back down on the bed and glanced around the room again, "wasn't I just on some country estate or something?"

"A few hours ago," Violet explained, "my dear husband slipped you a mickey, he didn't mean to, sort of and we brought you here."

"Where's here?"

"Here is, I mean this is where I work. I'm sort of involved in research," Violet hemmed, "and I'm trying to help you get your memory back."

"Thanks," David gestured at the wires, "can you get me out of this rig? It itches."

Violet smiled noticing the red mark where one of the leads had been removed, "you really shouldn't just pull on those, there's a special adhesive on them."

"I know that, now," David smiled ruefully.

"Stay there," Violet gestured, rising from the bed, "I'll be right back, and we'll get those off of you."

When Violet reached her office she found John right where she had left him, pacing like a caged animal, "he's all right," she assured her nervous husband, "he just disconnected the cardiac monitor."

"I know," John replied not stopping his restless movements, “this place sets all my nerves on edge..."

"You don't have to stay," Violet stepped in front of him, taking him in her arms and halting his progress, "you can go home and I'll call you when I need a ride."

John allowed himself to be still for a moment, "no I can't leave, what if one of your cronies shows up and gets curious as to what you're doing?"

"One day you're going to have to trust me," Violet sighed, releasing her husband from her embrace.

"Oh I trust you, with all my heart and with my very life," John assured her, "it's this place I don't trust."

Violet picked up a tube of adhesive remover, "why don't you come and see him? It may calm your nerves," she slipped her hand in his, and smiled winningly, "come on, you know I'm right."

Despite himself John smiled and bringing her hand to his lips gave it a quick kiss, "you win, let's go see how the patient is doing."

David had found the file that Violet had started on him and was thumbing through it when the couple arrived at his room. Violet turned white as he looked up from it and moved to grab it away. He deftly manoeuvred it out of her reach and held it tightly.

"I think it's time for a little chat," he said with his voice deadly quiet.


	15. Chapter 15

John's heart sank and a quick glance at Violet confirmed she was stunned too. Neither of them had anticipated this turn of events.

"I agree, we need to talk," John recovered, "but we really need to get you back your memory before we do. There's a lot that you've forgotten due to whatever was done to you, and it would be too confusing to try to fill that in just now."

"I think I have the right to know what's in here and why you two are so interested in me," David set the file down on his lap and flipped a few more pages, "should I read on or do you just want to tell me?"

Violet seemed to be frozen in place her face white, so John sat down next to David, "do you recall me telling you that you do not belong here?"

David nodded.

"That isn't exactly true, you were born here but you grew up on a different world," John started and then he paused. Getting to his feet he walked over to a small mirror on one wall, removed it and sat back down next to David. He angled the mirror so both of them were reflected, "aside from the extra gear you have on right now, we're almost identical. That's not a coincidence."

David looked at the reflection and then over at Violet who was now silently crying, "I see..." he mumbled, and then went quiet.

"Do you want me to continue?" John asked softly as he lowered the mirror.

"No, I'm good," David replied.

"I promise, you will get all your questions answered, but now is probably not the best time," John assured him.

Suddenly feeling cold all over David slid his hands into his pockets. As he did so his fingers touched the fob watch, and as soon as contact was made it started to warm at his touch. He pulled it out, "does this mean anything to either of you?" he held up the watch.

Violet let out a little squeak at seeing the watch. John maintained his composure, "may I see that?" he asked extending his hand.

David gave it to him, "this is going to sound crazy but sometime I think I hear it talking to me."

John smiled, "it's not crazy, I'm just really surprised you have one of these," he turned the watch around in his hands, "it looks pretty scorched, whatever brought you here must have been ferocious." Then he looked at his wife, "that necklace you took off of him, where is it?"

Violet pulled the necklace out of her pocket, and handed to John. He held the two pieces together and the watch began to emit yellow beams of light from behind the closed lid. He tried to open the watch, but it only budged a bit before seizing on him because the heat had melted the latch. The longer John held it the more intense the light grew, changing from yellow to an almost fire orange. After a few moment's silence John's eyes got really big, "I think I may have an idea..."

With that he jumped up and began pulling open drawers and assembling a seemingly random collection of wires and tools.

Violet watched her husband with a smile on her face, then turning back to David she remembered the adhesive remover she had in her hand and set about disconnecting him from the leads.

\------

The Doctor was singing various choruses of "Dry Bones" as he reassembled the device. He would get to the end and start again but not really getting the lyrics in exactly the right order. 

Deidre had released The Master but as The Doctor sang about connecting the thigh bone to the neck bone The Master almost wished she hadn't. "You don't know your human anatomy that well, do you?" The Master finally asked.

"Hmm?" came the reply as The Doctor didn't bother looking up from his task.

"So far you've connected everything except the kitchen sink to the neck bone this time out, I'd hate to see that end result," The Master snorted.

The Doctor grinned and launched into another round of the song, this time adding a new bone to the mix.

"Now you're just doing that to annoy me," The Master snapped, "I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as a 'master bone'!"

The Doctor barely missed a beat as he continued working, "the bonehead's connected to The Master bone..."

"If I wake up in the middle of the night with that song stuck in my head you will be sorry!" The Master threatened.

This got an evil sounding chuckle from The Doctor but he didn't cease his singing or his tinkering.

"I swear you do things just to irritate me!" The Master snarled.

"The door's over there," Deidre offered.

"He hasn't turned the collar off!" The Master protested.

"Oh! the collar bone's connected to the bonehead..." The Doctor sang out a bit louder.

The Master growled something under his breath as Deidre laughed loudly. The Doctor looked up at her and winked before pulsing some wires with his sonic screwdriver. Just as he finished that a loud beeping emitted from the device.

"Ah-ha!" The Doctor yelled, "gotcha!"


	16. Chapter 16

Deidre smiled at The Doctor, “you figured it out?” 

“No, I don’t even think I reassembled it right!” The Doctor laughed, “but it’s picked up a signal from the last destination, and unless someone else was zapped off somewhere, it’s David!”

He held the device up to his ear, “it’s locked onto some coordinates…” The Doctor mouthed something silently, then set the device down and changing the setting on his sonic screwdriver scanned the thing with a scowl, “that can’t be right!”

He turned away from the device and paced the room, “I hope I’m wrong,” he muttered to himself, “or we’re in trouble.”

The Master watched his fellow Time Lord, knowing full well if The Doctor was unsettled about this, then it had to be bad. 

“Where is it pointing to?” Deidre asked softly.

“An alternate Earth,” The Doctor stopped pacing, “and what’s worse, it’s smack dab in the middle of the alternate Earth’s alternate Torchwood!”

The Master gulped despite himself, and turned a bit pale. Deidre looked from one Time Lord to the other in confusion, “what’s a ‘Torchwood’?” she asked.

“If it’s alien it’s ours…” The Doctor sneered, “if they have David and have half a brain between them they’ll have figured out he’s a bit different.”

“I swear I didn’t set those coordinates!” The Master looked horrified. He didn’t particularly care about David, but the idea of anyone who was not 100% human being in the clutches of the notorious organisation was terrifying.

“We’ll worry about pointing fingers later, for now we have to get him out of there!” The Doctor snapped and ran out of the room. The Master still recovering from the shock didn’t move until he heard the restraining collar beep and then he took off after The Doctor.

“What’s a Torchwood?” Deidre yelled at the now empty room, “why is it no one ever answers me?” With a sigh and at a more dignified pace she followed the two Time Lords into the console room.

\------

David was just slipping his shirt back on, when John whirled around holding the pendant and the fob watch aloft, “I’m not quite sure what I did, but it’s sending out a signal now.”

Violet came over and bent down over the necklace, “who’s receiving the signal?”

John put the two objects down, “I don’t know. But since I don’t know how I turned the beacon on, I am not sure how to turn it off.”

“So this is potentially a bad thing,” David offered.

“Or it could be a good thing,” John countered. Just then someone started knocking on the door. 

Violet walked very quietly over to the security camera monitors and then turned back, “I’m voting for bad thing.”

“Who’s there?” David asked.

“My boss. He will be awfully curious as to what I’m doing here on a Sunday, with you two and all this new technology,” she gestured at the necklace and the fob watch, “there’s a storage closet back there, I suggest the two of you take that stuff and get yourselves out of sight, quickly!”

John grabbed the watch and the necklace and stuffed them into his pockets, he gave Violet a quick kiss and taking David’s arm led him to the back of the room, they both got into the storage cabinet just as the door opened.

“Now that’s dedication,” the man spoke as he entered the room. Violet had quickly pulled a stack of files out and pretended to be hard at work.

“Sorry,” Violet smiled, “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“What are you doing here on Sunday?” he continued looking around the room.

“Paper work,” Violet held up one of the folders.

“I thought you were on holiday,” the man glanced at the folder in her hand briefly, “didn’t you say you were going to the country to visit your parents?”

“They were driving me crazy,” Violet lied, “I think by law you should only have to spend two days with them. Besides my husband isn’t much of a country person and had a craving for BBQ ribs from Bodean’s.” 

For a moment Violet was sure her boss didn’t buy her story, his gaze focused on the storage cabinet far too long for her comfort. She had heard rumours he was mildly psychic but hadn’t really given that much credit until now.

He turned his attention back to her and flashed a grin, “well don’t work too hard, and make sure you lock up when you leave.”

No sooner had he left than John stepped out of the closet, “security cameras!” 

“What?” Violet shot back.

John pointed up, “security cameras! If you saw your boss that on one by the door, what makes you think he hasn’t been watching us from another camera?”

Violet smacked her forehead with her palm, “I hadn’t considered that! We have to get out of here.”

The three made haste to leave, Violet grabbing the file she had started on David and started to exit the room. The door swung open to her boss casually leaning against the opposite wall, a smile on his face and a gun in his hand.


	17. Chapter 17

Violet turned on the charm, smiling at her boss winningly, “nice gun, any reason you have it out right now?”

He nodded at John and David, “you know better than to bring in people without properly screening them through security.”

“But you’ve met my husband before, at the last company picnic; at Pete’s. You know my step-father’s estate, remember? Speaking of Pete, he isn’t going to be too thrilled with you threatening a co-worker with a gun. He is still your boss,” she tried for intimidation but could see it wasn’t having the desired effect.

The man didn’t move, “I’ve met John before, and well let’s just say the secret files that are supposed to be secure and hack-proof aren’t, interesting reading by the way. But what is even more curious is the tests on your new friend here,” he waved the gun at David.

“You tapped into the lab computers,” Violet sighed, “why are you doing this?”

“I’ve been keeping an eye on you since you started! Suddenly you appear out of nowhere, get promoted at an accelerated rate, and turns out you’re married to someone who by all rights your step-father should have here in a lab studying, dissecting, but somehow he’s free to roam about,” the man laughed humourlessly, “and now you’ve got another human/alien hybrid on your hands. Where did you pick that one up?”

John took two steps forward his fists balled, but Violet held him back.

“Why don’t we call Pete now?” Violet spoke, her voice very calm, “and see what he thinks of this?”

“Or, we can all just go back into the lab,” her boss replied, gesturing with the gun towards the door, “and you can let me see that file you tried to hide from me earlier.”

“And why would we do that?” John snapped.

Violet’s boss’ smiled widened, “because I have the gun,” then he turned to Violet, “keep your ‘friends’ on a leash before I lose my good mood.”

Violet linked her arm in David’s, and they exchanged glances with John. Violet’s boss watched them closely but seeing that the end result was the three of them turning back to the lab door in apparent cooperation he didn’t see the need to interfere. 

Just inside the door John came to complete stop, planting his feet and bracing himself against the doorway, this forced Violet’s boss to take two steps back in haste to avoid running into him. As tried to stop himself Violet threw herself at his feet, grabbing his ankles and knocking him backwards, at the same time David grabbed the man’s arms and pinned them behind his back, forcing him to drop the gun.

“Nice trick,” the man grunted as he was lifted up by the legs and arms and secured to one of the tables, “don’t think this is going to look good on your next review!” he hissed at Violet.

Violet glared down at him as John and David tightened the straps, “oh I think once I tell Pete what you just pulled here, you won’t be my boss any longer.”

The man struggled in vain, “you won’t get away with this!” 

Violet laughed, “I think I just did.”

Before they left Torchwood Violet wiped the files from the computer and put the hard copies in her satchel.

Violet and John were still smiling as they left the lab, holding hands and giggling conspiratorially. They were safely outside and heading to the car when David stopped, “what did he mean about human/alien hybrid?”

John’s smile faded, “I’m only half human.”

“All right…but he said ‘another human/alien hybrid’,” David replied, “and he was not looking at her when he said it. So who did he mean?”

John and Violet looked at each other in silence for a bit, and then John spoke up, “he meant you.”

\--------

Violet’s boss was well into his second hour of planning and plotting his revenge when a loud sound filled the room, it was a grinding sound like a large industrial machine being run without oil, and was supplemented by a windstorm.

To his surprise a blue box materialised in one corner of the room and a tall thin man stepped out. 

“Where is everybody?” The Doctor asked of the restrained man.

“How can there be three people with the same face?” the stunned man queried, taking in The Doctor’s appearance.

“Oh good, you saw them!” The Doctor sighed, “where’d they go?”

“How about untying me?” Violet’s boss wiggled his hands trying to call attention to his bonds.

“Not a chance,” The Doctor snapped, “I’ve had experience with you lot before, I like you better incapacitated.” 

Before the man could respond another man stepped out of the box and was soon followed by a sturdily built woman with red hair.

The Doctor turned to these new arrivals, “Oi! You lot! Back in, we’re not staying!”

He was soundly ignored as the other two walked around the lab; The Master picked up a few things, examined them closely and then stuck them in his pockets.

“That’s Torchwood property!” the man snapped at him.

“Not anymore,” The Master smiled.

“One more time,” The Doctor leaned over the prone man, “where did they go?”

“I don’t know, they tied me up and left me here!” the man whined, “just who are you anyway?”

“I’m The Doctor,” the other replied, “well, it’s been fun. See ya!” With that he bundled his companions back towards the blue box.

As they started to leave the man shouted, “you can’t just leave me here!”

But he soon found out, much to his chagrin, that they very well could. The loud grinding sound filled the room again and the blue box disappeared.


	18. Chapter 18

As the TARDIS took off again The Doctor grumbled, "if you're going to send out a beacon at least stay in the same spot!" 

"Maybe they didn't think you were coming," Deidre offered.

"It can't have been more than an hour, who sends out a beacon for help and then scoots off after just one hour? What sort of patience level is that?" The Doctor ranted, Deidre opened her mouth to answer him but he cut her off, "someone with the attention span of a Adipose after too much Lucozade! that's who!"

The Master was too busy gloating over what he nicked from Torchwood to pay either of the other occupants of the TARDIS any mind. Deidre realised The Doctor needed time to calm down so she wandered over to where The Master had spread out his ill-gotten gains.

"What's that?" she pointed to something that looked like an ink pen mated with a hedgehog.

"That is a Argolin poison grenade," The Master smiled holding it up for a better look, "its various 'quills' can read the life form it's been thrown at to determine which toxin inside would be best to kill it. Then it emits just that specific toxin."

"Does that include humans?" Deidre asked eyeing the thing suspiciously.

"This one isn't set for that," The Master sighed disappointedly.

Deidre sighed too, but in relief. Then she squinted at another object The Master had in front of him, "what's that?" she asked.

The Master followed her gaze, "that is unfortunately broken. It is supposed to be an Ice Warrior's ice gun but whoever took it apart and tried to reassemble it was a complete oaf. Or a human. Same thing."

This continued on for a bit, The Master seemed to be losing his patience with Deidre but aware that her back hand was dangerously close to his face he continued until she asked him yet another question.

"And that?" Deidre poked her finger into the latest object of her curiosity and pulled it away dripping.

"That," The Master replied in an exasperated tone, "is a cup of tea. Thank you so much for introducing your grubby digit into it. And it's going to go stone cold if you keep asking me about everything that happens to be in front of you."

Deidre shrugged and walked back to the now quiet Doctor, "how can you find the beacon's sender if you don't know where they went?"

The Doctor grinned, "I know who has David now," and at that proclamation he began to set the TARDIS' materialisation sequence.

\-------

Just as the car pulled up to the their house a blue box was suddenly blocking the drive. John slammed on the brakes just in time to avoid hitting it. But before he could get the car back under control David was out the door and ran over to the box, "I've seen this before, I recognise this!" he shouted

Violet joined him smiling, "I'm sure you do, do you recall its name?" 

David hesitated, "no, but I keep seeing it in my mind the minute I close my eyes."

No sooner had he gotten the words out when the door opened, and The Doctor stepped out with a smile, "tag you're it!" he laughed tapping David on the shoulder.

David stepped back and looked at The Doctor with a puzzled expression. The Doctor's smiled faded, "well I thought it was funny," he mumbled. Then he looked over at John, nodded an acknowledgement in his direction before bounding over to Violet and giving her a big hug.

"So how did you two come to find our lad?" The Doctor asked once he let Violet go.

"He just showed up here," Violet answered then gesturing at her husband, "John and I were just as surprised to see him as he was to be here."

The Doctor leaned in close, "memory still gone?" he asked.

"My memory may be gone, but my hearing is fine," David informed him, "and to be honest I'm really getting fed up with people acting like I'm five years old."

John bit back a laugh at that, earning him a glare from The Doctor which he ignored. "He does that to everybody," John smiled at David. 

"I do not!" The Doctor protested.

"Do so," Deidre added her two cents worth as she stepped out of the TARDIS.

"Now you're just being ridiculous," The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"You do too," The Master sounded forth as he joined the others.

"You don't even know what we're talking about!" The Doctor chided.

"You're right," The Master laughed, "it's just a knee jerk reaction to disagree with you."

David's eyes narrowed as he saw The Master, "why does he seem familiar?" he asked John.

"He's The Master," John informed him, "he's the cosmos' biggest jerk, really, and he's most likely the one who wiped your memory."

Then in a move that took everyone by surprise, David stepped up to The Master cocked his fist and with one blow to the jaw sent the Time Lord falling to the ground, out like a light.


	19. Chapter 19

“As much as I don’t condone violence,” The Doctor stated as he pulled David away from the prone Master, “that was one hell of a right hook!”

“Sorry,” David replied not sounding that contrite, “I just lost it for a moment.”

Violet beamed at him, “we’ve all wanted to do that at one point or another!”

David looked around and saw many nods of agreement at that statement, and relaxed his tense shoulders, “so can you get me my memory back?”

“Of course!” The Doctor blurted out, but then he thought about it a bit more, “well, I will give it my best try.”

“Show him the watch,” John urged.

“Right…the watch,” David dug in his pocket and handed it to The Doctor, “why is this so important?”

The Doctor took the watch and held it up to his ear, “if I’m lucky…if I’m very, very lucky this may be just what we need!”

John held out the necklace, “and we still have this thing.”

The Doctor skipped over to John and took the necklace from him, “this may all work out after all!” he chortled; “now all I need is a way to combine the data…”

“What about that silver thingie you’ve been tinkering with?” Deidre offered.

The Doctor pulled the control device out of his pocket, “good point, but they are still three separate pieces and I need to get the data off of them all and put them in one central place.” He looked back at the TARDIS biting his lower lip, deep in thought. 

“I know where we can get that accomplished,” Violet spoke up, “a place with unlimited technology resources…”

The Doctor stared at her blankly at first, then the penny dropped, “you can’t be serious!”

She smiled, “I am!”

“No way!” The Doctor shot back, “there’s got to be a better alternative!”

Deidre watched the two of them in confusion, “where is this place?”

“Torchwood!” The Doctor and Violet spoke at the same time. Only when she said it, she had a big smile on her face, whereas The Doctor looked like he had just smelled something horrid.

“Stop being such a ‘fraidy-cat,” Deidre smacked The Doctor lightly on the arm, “if that’s where we need to be to set this all straight, let’s just do it and get him fixed!”

David winced, “please don’t use that term,” he laughed.

Deidre giggled, “sorry! I mean make him all better.”

The Doctor scooped up The Master and they all piled into John’s car. 

The ride to Torchwood was silent, only Deidre seemed to be in a chatty mood, she was keeping a running travelogue mostly comparing the scenery on this world to the Earth she was more used to. The Master came to with her voice rasping in his head, “did anyone get the number of the lorry that hit me?” he mumbled.

“That ‘lorry’ was me,” David admitted, “and I’d apologise if I felt that I could sound at all sincere about it.”

“Nice,” The Master hissed, “makes me wish I had beamed you into a black hole.”

Violet tried to leap over the seat to get at The Master but John held her back with one hand, “don’t let him get to you,” he soothed.

They arrived and Violet them into the building. As they entered the lab Violet’s boss was still strapped down to the examining table. The Doctor waved, “hello again!”

The man stared at him like he had two heads and didn’t return his greeting. Instead he yelled at Violet, “you can’t keep me trussed up like this! I’ll have the police on you! This is unlawful imprisonment! I’ll…”

But before he could finish his sentence John stuff a rag in his mouth, “you’re giving me a headache,” he calmly explained. Then he turned to The Doctor, “don’t mean to rush you but we really are working on a time sensitive thing here.”

Violet nodded, “even though it’s Sunday they do have routine security checks, and the longer we’re here the more likely we’ll be discovered. I turned off the cameras, but they still do physical inspections.”

The Doctor sat down at the computer and started attaching wires and connectors to the various devices. The watch he treated to a small burst of the sonic screwdriver and the lid opened with a bright orange light that he had to shield his eyes from, before he was able to close it again.

The Master’s head was still pounding so he parked himself on one of the chairs and closed his eyes. Deidre walked about the lab aimlessly, occasionally looking at the items that lined the walls. Everyone else watched The Doctor’s flying fingers with great interest.

As for The Doctor he was oblivious to all the attention he was getting, his focus was on the task at hand, mostly silent except for the occasional comment to himself in strange mix of English, Gallifreyan and the odd bit of Latin thrown in for good measure.


	20. Chapter 20

Feeling a bit overwhelmed David sat down on one of the chairs and closed his eyes. If he concentrated he could almost come up with the names of those around him, but just as his lips started to form the words his mind went blank again. It struck him again how odd it was to just accept these people at face value, why wasn't he more curious about them? And why did two of them share his face?

And then there was that nagging feeling. Like he had somewhere to be, urgently and yet, where was that? he wondered.

He leaned down holding his head in his hands, suddenly feeling very dizzy. 

Violet noticed it first, "David? are you OK?" she sounded miles away, her voice faint and echo-y. She perched on the edge of the chair and tried to get him to look up at her but he kept his head down.

"Doctor?" she called out trying to get the Time Lord's attention, but only succeeded in having everyone but the one being she wanted to glance over at her.

John crouched down in front of David, "hey, there," he touched him lightly on the arm, "talk to me, are you all right?"

Deidre tapped The Doctor hard on the shoulder, which finally got him to look up from his work, "something's wrong," she pointed over at David.

The Doctor glanced over the rim of his glasses, "bound to happen, I'm very close to getting everything synced up, the watch is singing to him, can't you hear it?"

John stood up, listening, "I can, faintly."

The Doctor smiled at John sadly, “it's something that you and I can hear but not that loudly. It has faint traces for us because we have intersected with his life in many ways, but they're his memories so it's probably becoming very loud, it will be slightly worse when everything is in..."

As soon as he said that David clutched his ears and started to moan, softly, as he rocked in place. Violet stomped over to The Doctor and grabbed him by his lapels, "stop it! You're hurting him!"

John pulled her off of the Time Lord, "he needs to finish this, or David's memory will never get restored!" before she could protest further he lifted her up and moved her away from The Doctor.

Deidre opted for a slightly different approach, "can you at least speed it up, make this end, fast?" 

The Doctor looked down at the computer monitor and back at David, "I can't. It's got to work at its own pace, if I rush this it could cause holes or gaps in what gets restored, or even risk causing permanent damage to his mind."

The conversation was brought to a complete halt as David let out a shriek of pain and fell to the floor, curling into the foetal position, hands still tightly held to his ears.

Violet got down on her knees and tried to cradle him in her arms but found he was rigid and hard to move, John stood by helplessly as she burst into tears.

The computer beeped and The Doctor turned his attention back to it, and started to attach some wires to what looked suspiciously like a rugby helmet. After a bit of fiddling and a few bursts of the sonic screwdriver he unplugged the whole mess from the computer and stood up, “we need to get him off the floor and onto something a bit more comfortable."

John looked around the room, the only comfy bit of furniture still had Violet's boss strapped to it. Gesturing for Deidre to help him they removed the man from the cot and keeping his arms and legs bound. John made sure the make shift gag stayed in place they shoved him into the storage closet and blocked the door with a spare bit of metal tubing.

Then gently nudging Violet aside John bent down and lifted David off the floor and carried him over to the table. John tried to get him to uncurl but found he couldn't get him to budge. The Doctor came over holding the helmet, but stopped as he realised that with David's hands clutched over his ears he wasn't going to be able to get the head gear on him.

The Doctor leaned in and whispered something to John, who nodded in agreement. Before Violet knew what was going on she was half lifted, half carried out into the hallway, set down by her husband and the door to the lab slammed shut behind her.

"No you don't!" she yelled at the door, "let me back in! John! You're going to sleep on the bloody sofa for the rest of your life if you don't open this now!" she pounded on the cold metal and when her fists ached she kicked it twice for good measure.

"I hate you!" she cried as she slid down to a sitting position, not entirely sure who that was meant for, really.

Taking one arm each John and The Doctor pulled David's hands away from his ears, and Deidre slipped the helmet onto his head. Then John tightened the strap and stepped away. Much to everyone's surprised David's hands remained at his side, instead of resuming the position they had seemed to be locked in.

Deidre made soothing noises as she took one of his hands in hers, "you'll be fine love," she cooed looking up at The Doctor for reassurance. 

John slipped his hand in Deidre's other hand and squeezed it gently, "this may not be pretty, you might want to wait outside also."

"But it will be alright, won't it?" she asked her voice wavering just a bit.

"Eventually," The Doctor spoke up, then in an almost inaudible voice, "or at least I hope so..."

The Doctor stepped over to the computer and attached a cable from it to the helmet, and zapped the connection with a burst of light from the sonic screwdriver. He inspected the rig before walking over to the computer, his fingers hovering over the keyboard, ready to press keys.

Just then the man they had shoved in the storage closet managed to get out and fell to the floor in a heap of spare medical equipment. At the same time the door to the lab exploded inwards with a plume of smoke, and Violet burst into the room. She was holding some sort of gun-like apparatus tightly in both hands, "don't you ever dare lock me out again!" she hissed.

The commotion woke The Master, who opened one eye and yawned, "how am I supposed to get a nap in with all this noise?" he snapped. Then opening the other eye to a sea of glares he noted the total lack of sympathy for his plight and shrugged, "is it tea time yet?"


	21. Chapter 21

Violet’s boss had managed to free himself of the restraints, and pulled out a gun aiming at the others. Then climbing over the pile of medical supplies he made to hit an alarm button just a few feet in front of him. But before he could reach it he found his way blocked by a blonde man in a dark suit. 

“Talk about taking the easy way out,” The Master sneered, “come on you can be cleverer than that, can’t you?”

The other man gaped at the mismatched eyed stranger who was seemingly laughing at him, but he stopped his efforts to hit the alarm, “what would you suggest I do?”

The Master looked over at the others, “not knowing what sort of clever weapons you may have hidden around here, it’s sort of hard to guess. How about you show me what you have and I’ll help you decide?”

“Why would you help me?” the man asked suspiciously, “aren’t you with them?”

“See this lovely bit of jewellery?” The Master gestured at his neck, “it’s a restraining collar, that man,” he pointed at The Doctor, “has me as his prisoner. I’m not ‘with them’ I’m a captive.”

This seemed to mollify Violet’s boss and he opened another cupboard at the back of the lab, “here are some stasis guns, no? OK...over here is something really interesting it’s a compressed air canon that fires off a net that instantly engulfs the victim rendering them completely helpless.”

Violet made a move towards The Master but John held her back, waiting to see how this played out. She looked at her husband in puzzlement, putting her faith his judgement she stepped back, but her eyes never left the other Time Lord. 

The Master took the cannon and fired it at Deidre but it missed her, “sight’s a bit off,” he murmured as she squealed in surprise when the net flew past her.

The other man nodded, “the species that developed that had three eyes, we’re still working on a way to correct for that,” then he handed The Master an evil looking sword-like weapon. 

The Master hefted the weapon, he pushed a button on the side and four more sharp and serrated blades popped out of the sides, then twirling the handle a bright light burst out of the tip, “I’ve seen this one before,” he grinned, “unfortunately they really drain the batteries and the blades tend to go dull in wet climates.”

He handed it back to the man, “if you’re willing to get up close and personal when you slaughter that lot,” he waved his hand at the others dismissively, “it is pretty useful. But you’ll get a bit gory in the process.”

“This next thing is really intriguing,” Violet’s boss continued, “it’s an ice gun!’

The Master snorted, “I ‘borrowed’ one of those when I was here earlier. I don’t know who you have working on your finds but they assembled that firing mechanism incorrectly, you pull that trigger and you’re going to literally freeze your hand off.”

The man didn’t stop to wonder why he felt the need to impress this stranger but his need drove him to uncover more weaponry. The end result was that each new discovery only seemed to bore the other more. It wasn’t until he retrieved a small blue device that The Master seemed to perk up.

“Now you’re talking,” The Master chortled as he took the weapon from the now smiling man. The man’s smile quickly faded as the instrument was raised, aimed square at his chest and fired. 

The effect was the man went flying across the room, bounced off the opposite wall and collapsed into a heap. The Master watched his progress with bemused interest and then set the weapon down on a nearby counter top.

Turning to face the stunned expressions of the others in the room he shrugged, “I hate bureaucrats.”

The Doctor was the first to recover from the shock of the recent events; he leaned over the computer keyboard and typed in a command, activating the data transfer. 

After a few seconds a bright orange light suffused David and his body stiffened. He made no sound but his jaw was clamped tightly, as were his eyes. The light seemed to dim for a moment then started to shoot out from his finger tips and began to glow out from behind his closed mouth and eyelids. The wires attached to the helmet seemed to wilt in the heat but stayed in place. 

The Doctor looked back at the computer’s monitor in concern as the glow grew to fill the room and the heat of the light began to set things close to the cot on fire. John grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and used it to put out the flames, ignoring the way his exposed skin grew hotter the closer he got to David.

Violet watched in horror, “he’s not…” she whispered, “he can’t!” 

Deidre looked around in confusion, “what’s going on? Someone please tell me!”

Just as she got that out an alarm sounded and the room’s built in fire suppression equipment kicked on, drenching them all in a slightly foamy chemical and water. Then the power turned off.

“No! No! No!” The Doctor shouted, pounding on the computer, “not now, don’t you dare!” the computer was on a UPS and it stayed on for a few minutes more until it clicked off. 

A second later the room was plunged into the complete darkness and everything went silent.


	22. Chapter 22

After what seemed like an eternity the back up generators kicked on and power was restored. The Doctor quickly rebooted the computer and tapped his foot impatiently as the thing came to life.

Deidre cleared her throat trying to get his attention, finally giving up on subtlety she smacked him on the arm, "I think you may want to know..." she pointed at the empty cot.

The Doctor groaned and picked up the discarded helmet, "how in the hell?" he asked as he noticed the chin strap was burnt clean through.

Violet ran out into the hallway, quickly followed by John, both of them calling David's name trying to locate him.

The Master just stood still and waited to be noticed. Finally The Doctor looked up from the tangled mass of melted wiring, "the back door's open" The Master gestured at the far end of the lab, "may I suggest?"

But before he could finish that thought Deidre was shoving him out of the way and was out the door like a shot.

The Doctor was still trying to figure out what happened. The computer beeped once and the screen lit up with graphs and charts as his long fingers flew over the keyboard.

Deidre got out the door and into a small room with high windows set in one wall. It looked like a meeting room but held only a few stray storage boxes. As she looked around the room she smelled flowers, and felt a breeze. The room open up into a courtyard, she peeked out the window and saw David sitting on one of the benches looking intently at his hands. 

As she approached him, he stuck his hands in his pockets. Then she sat down next to him, noting he was drenched from head to toe like he had run marathon, his clothes were stuck to him and he seemed to be radiating heat.

"How did you get out here?" she asked.

"Good question," he replied with a laugh, "not exactly sure."

"Are you OK?" 

"Bit thirsty but yeah, I'm fine."

"They're looking for you" 

"Who's 'they'?" David asked.

Deidre stopped, "what's my name?" she asked her brow furrowed.

"Deidre," he looked at her like she had grown two heads, but before he could ask her why she felt the need to question that she enfolded him in a bone crushing hug, his face pressed into her ample bosom. 

Just about the time he wondered if he was ever going to be able to breathe again she released him, and yelled back at the open door, "he's out here!"

The Doctor ambled out into the courtyard and knelt in front of David looking into his eyes with a frown, then he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and scanned him. "Let me see your hands," he asked.

"Why?" David replied not removing them from his pockets.

"He was staring at them when I came out!" Deidre offered, earning her a bit of a dirty look from David.

"Please?" The Doctor smiled charmingly.

As David removed one hand, reluctantly, from his pocket Deidre gasped, a soft orange glow was coming from it.

The Doctor sighed, "I thought so, you need to come back inside, you're not done yet."

"What is going on?" David asked, his voice a bit shaky.

"We were in the process of getting your memory back and I think we were mostly successful but somehow it triggered your latent Gallifreyan DNA and it's like it's trying to um..." The Doctor stopped as the glow grew brighter, when he touched David's hand, "come inside, now!"

Once they got back to the lab The Master was standing at a white board, doodling obscene figures with multicoloured erasable marker pens. Violet studied the half completed work, “I don’t think that’s anatomically possible,” she remarked.

The Doctor cocked his head at the drawings, “it would be if the one of the partners…” then he stopped his face colouring slightly, “I have more important things to think about, work it out on your own!” 

The Master chortled and continued his scribbling until The Doctor grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside.

“This device of yours, how many others did you make?” The Doctor asked him, his eyes dark.

“Just the one,” The Master shrugged, “and Rassilon knows once you got your grubby mitts on it, it’s nothing more than pretty junk.”

“You said it was made to your specs, did you do that on purpose?” he gestured over at David.

“Do what?” The Master shot back, “how about telling me what it is you think I did, and then I’ll have a clue what it is you want me to confess!”

The Doctor’s eyes searched his fellow Time Lord’s face, “you really don’t know?” then he rubbed his eyes, “that device was powered by a battery, and also draws from the activator. You effectively donated some of yourself to David. Now he has some of your essence, some of you in him, which is potentially very, very bad! When I activated the watch, the device and the sending unit, your contribution blasted his Gallifreyan DNA making it stronger. Effectively triggering a sort of…”

The Doctor’s words were cut off by Violet’s boss’ return to consciousness; he fished out his gun and was now pointing it at them. The Doctor stomped over to him, grabbed the gun from his shaky hand and tossed it across the room, “now stay there and be quiet!” he yelled at the startled man. Then he rejoined The Master.

Violet had overheard the conversation, “can you reverse it?”

The Master was smiling in a very unnerving way, “why would we want to reverse that? That is just too delicious! Wonder if there is a little war going on now? Good VS bad as the eternal battle tends to go, our DNA growling at each other?”

“It’s not funny,” Violet snapped.

“I don’t think there is anything we can do to reverse it, I just hope in the long run that it doesn’t cause any damage or harm,” The Doctor replied, ignoring the gloating look on The Master’s face.

“The glowing’s stopped,” David called out.

This brought the two Time Lords to his side The Doctor scanned him while The Master smiled at him, reminding David of a cat eyeing a canary.

The Doctor put the sonic screwdriver away with a grimace, “it seems to have stabilised now.”

“That’s good news, right?” David asked taking in the grim look on The Doctor’s face.

“Oh yes,” The Doctor tried to smile but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Right….” David sighed, “OK what’s wrong?”

The Doctor explained in his usual verbose manner. David was silent the entire time, his eyes wide but he seemed fairly calm, considering.

“Am I going to turn into a jerk?” David joked trying to dispel some of the tension in the room.

“More of a jerk, you mean,” The Master offered.

At that John grabbed The Master tightly around the neck and lifted him off his feet, “I have had enough of you!” he hissed squeezing the other’s throat in his hands.

“That’s not going to solve anything,” David spoke up, “let him go, please.”

John wavered, not really wanting to let The Master off so easily but he finally relented and set him down.

“Now,” David smiled sadly, “you promised me a chat.”


	23. Chapter 23

Under the watchful eye of The Doctor the three of them, Violet, John and David went into one of the corners of the large lab.

John was the first to break the awkward silence, "it would take a really long time to speak it all out, if you're up to it I'd prefer to just link our minds and show you instead."

David looked at the two of them, hesitating a moment, then he shrugged, "sure, why not, everyone else seems to have been in here lately" he tapped his head with a wry smile, "what's one more?"

Violet watched as John's long fingers reached out and touched David's temples and both men's eyes closed. She envied this ability in her husband, and she guessed, her son too, but didn't share their gift.

After a few minutes she realised the temperature around her was dropping dramatically, she exhaled and could see her breath. She looked over at the two men, silent, faces blank and then at a thermostat set in the wall behind them. The dial was steadily falling 10, now 9, now 8 degrees and still lower it dipped. 

Just as she wished she had a jumper David twitched slightly and took a sharp intake of breath. John's lids fluttered and then the temperature shot up, now the thermostat looked like it was possessed, the needle jumped and spun before righting itself and the air became almost unbearable. 26 no, 28 still not done, she watched the temps rise and then noticed a soft orange glow was starting to form around the two men.

She was about to say something when the glass vials on a nearby shelf exploded sending sharp shards flying, as this happened The Doctor came running over.

"Stop!" he shouted trying to pry John's hands away from David's temples but couldn't unlocked the meta-crisis' fingers. Violet slipped her arms under John's shoulders and lifted him from his chair at the same time The Doctor did the same to David.

Both men went limp the moment they were disengaged. At the same time the temperature around them started to slowly return to normal.

David opened his eyes and stood up, fist clenched and looking around wildly. Violet set John down on the floor gently and walked over to him, "talk to me," she put her hands on his arms, only to have him pull away.

The Doctor exchanged a look with Violet and then took David aside, "I did warn you..." he started.

"So basically," David hissed, "everything I am is a complete lie? Everything I thought I was, those I love are not who I thought they were?"

"No, no," The Doctor soothed, "you are still who you always were, you're just this too now. It's not like your adopted family is less real than before you found this out. They still love you, you still love them, right?"

David took a deep breath, "I would really like to go home now. I need time to just be who I used to think I was for a bit," he spoke in a very toneless voice.

Violet bowed her head, she knew the truth would be hard to take, but some small part of her had hoped that it wouldn't be this rough.

"Of course," The Doctor nodded, "we really should get going anyway. The TARDIS is running on emergency power," he stepped over the still prone John and went to gather Deidre and The Master, leaving Violet and David alone.

Violet looked up at David beseechingly and opened her mouth to say something just as the wave of heat started to regain its hold on their corner of the room, she tried for a smile and reached out to hug him.

She got within touching distance and hit what felt like a wall of flame and she found herself sitting down hard with a gasp, "please don't be angry!" she whispered, this time fully aware of where the energy was coming from.

David took a shuddering breath, hands still clenched and closed his eyes. After standing in the position for what seemed like an eternity he opened his eyes again and with great effort visibly relaxed his whole body. Then he reached a hand down to help Violet off the floor. 

"I'm sorry, it's just too much right now," he smiled sadly as he stepped out of her reach. Then he looked down at John, "hope he'll be OK."

And without another word, he walked away to join the others in the TARDIS.

Violet watched the blue box dematerialise and then kneeling down helped the now conscious John into a semi-sitting position as her boss gaped at the two of them his eyes wide with fright.


End file.
